Extending Film Aesthetics

Author(s):  
Kevin J. Donnelly

This article appears in theOxford Handbook of New Audiovisual Aestheticsedited by John Richardson, Claudia Gorbman, and Carol Vernallis. Film remains at the apex of audiovisual culture, providing inspiration and aspiration for other media. Film music and other sounds from the soundtrack have extended film aesthetics beyond the bounds of film into other media and culture. Sound design now can use musical software to enhance sound effects in films and music composers to incorporate sound effect recordings. Soundtrack elements now appear to have an “aesthetic” character. Technology has engendered a spatial sonic arena wherein sonic elements have mixed into a sensual and psychological field. Modern film soundtracks often evince a conceptual or aesthetic unity strikingly similar to musical unity, evident in disc releases unconnected to the cinema. In films sounds on their own work in a different way, implying visuals that we then expect to see or imagine. That soundimpliesvisuals is crucial also to extended soundtracks outside film.

Author(s):  
Laura Anderson

Sound design is a relatively recent term, first used to credit Walter Murch’s work on Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979). Murch has frequently drawn an analogy between how he perceived his role as decorating the three-dimensional film theater with sound and the work of an interior designer who decorates an architectural space (LoBrutto 1994, p. 92, cited under Key Practitioners: Compilations). Sound design is also a topic of increasing interest within film music scholarship, particularly its history and how it might be analyzed. The history of sound design is inextricably bound up with the history of technology, notably the emergence of Dolby in the 1970s. In his Oxford Bibliographies article “Music and Cinema, Classical Hollywood,” David Neumeyer noted in the introduction that the end of the Classical Hollywood era could be situated c. 1972 when the “contemporary era of sound design began in earnest,” and this particular period is indeed crucial. Yet, this is not to suggest that the history of film sound design is brief; in fact, it has a long history of antecedents that have shaped the role of the sound designer into a somewhat fluid concept. As of the early 21st century, no consensus has been reached on the definition of “sound design” in current research; however, the distinction between sound design as the work of one individual as opposed to a mode of practice is apparent. Furthermore, “sound designer” also has a professional meaning; in the United States the labor union defines the sound designer as a person who designs the sound effects. Some scholars expound this relatively narrow definition of sound design as akin to sound effects editing in the post-production process, whereas others see it as a broad undertaking, concerned with every aspect of the sonic environment. Murch encourages a broader definition of the sound designer as “someone who plans, creates the sound effects and mixes the final soundtrack, and thereby takes responsibility for the sound of a film the way a director of photography takes responsibility for the image” (Murch 1995, p. 246, cited under Key Practitioners: Articles). Sound design can encapsulate all components of film sound, including music, dialogue, sound effects, and voiceovers. This holistic understanding of the term is reflected in a significant interdisciplinary edition that takes the concept of the integrated soundtrack as a central theme (Greene and Kulezic-Wilson 2016, cited under Analyzing Film Sound Design). Sound design can involve conceptualization and practical efforts as well as cooperation with the director, producer, composer, editors, and other creative personnel. Sound designer Randy Thom has highlighted the importance of developing opportunities for the creative use of sound when making a film and has appealed for filmmakers to design their films for sound (Thom 1999, cited under Key Practitioners: Articles). The combination of creativity, technical expertise, and the ability to conceptualize innovative interactions between sound and image inherent in the concept is reflected in the very title of “sound designer,” a label that is not officially recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards. With the growing popularity of the term among some industry professionals, it is becoming common for sound artists to claim the credit “sound designer” in addition to those for recognized roles such as “sound editor” or “re-recording engineer” (Whittington 2007, p. 26, cited under Histories and Definitions of Sound Design). Within film music studies, the concept of sound design is increasingly used as a filter for analysis of a film’s soundscape, and thus publications now address how to analyze more complex film soundtracks. The focus of this article is divided into three broad strands: textbooks that give practical and technical direction for film sound design or aspects of it, literature on the history of sound design and the purview of the sound designer, and publications about and interviews with key practitioners.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 149
Author(s):  
Siu-Lan Tan

Kock and Louven (in this issue) examined the effects of music, sound effects, full sound design (music and sound effects) and no sound on self-reported measures of immersion and suspense in real time, as viewers watched very brief original films. This commentary discusses the method, analysis, and implications of their findings within the broader context of the state of the art of film music research, and future directions for investigations in this area.


2020 ◽  
pp. 91-102
Author(s):  
Noah Kellman

Each video game has its own unique, visual aesthetic, and it’s up to the composer to complement this visual world by creating a sonic atmosphere. Many of the greatest games have incorporated musical elements into their sound effects and ambiences. As the field of game music continues to grow, so does the importance of sound design as part of the composer’s skill set. This chapter explores how music and sound effects have interacted throughout the history of game music, defining these relationships for the reader in understandable terms with clear distinctions and accessible examples. This chapter explores FEZ (2012) as an example, along with a variety of other examples in which the music and sound effects were conceived with different levels of interconnectivity.


2021 ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
Milena Droumeva

This chapter argues that the vocal performance of Lara Croft’s character in Tomb Raider 2013 manifests a particular type of media femininity requiring her fear and fragility and contrasts with similar games featuring male leads. Extending the discussion of the male gaze to sound brings new insight to the relationships between a character’s look, her movements and mechanics, and her vocalizations, to embody the character’s gender or act as gendered corporeality. The chapter argues that by virtue of being sound “effects,” women’s voices and feminized sounds in games draw on and solidify some of the most deeply entrenched gendered norms of sound design and voice-over work. Lara Croft’s excessive breathiness, as well as the overuse of environmental reverberation, codes her gendered sonic position as “feminized.” Players experience Lara Croft’s vocalizations as coded with abundant emotionality and fragility—sounds of strain, inner monologue, gasps, reactions, and battle cries—especially when compared with a similar narrative and game character, Nathan Drake, from the Uncharted series. By comparing the gendered sonic positioning of Lara and Nathan, the chapter shows her embodied vocal fragility by linking these characteristics to a transmedia historiography of feminized vocal typologies.


Animation ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-147
Author(s):  
Paul Taberham
Keyword(s):  

From the inception of sync sound in the late 1920s to the modern day, sound in animation has assumed a variety of forms. This article proposes four principal modes that have developed in the commercial realm of American animation according to changing contingencies of convention, technology and funding. The various modes are termed syncretic, zip-crash, functional and poetic authentication. Each one is utilized to different aesthetic effect, with changing relationships to the image. The use of voice, music, sound effects and atmos are considered as well as the ways in which they are recorded, manipulated and mixed. Additionally, the ways in which conventions bleed from one period to the next are also illustrated. Collectively, these proposed categories aid in understanding the history and creative range of options available to animators beyond the visual realm.


2015 ◽  
pp. 54-62
Author(s):  
Oos M. Anwas

Abstrak: Kehidupan masyarakat modern cenderung instan dan praktis, serta familier dengan produk teknologi informasi dan komunikasi. Namun tuntutan pekerjaan dan budaya bertutur ini menjadikan malas untuk membaca apalagi buku teks. Padahal membaca buku sangat perlu dalam mengikuti perkembangan iptek yang begitu cepat. Tulisan ini bertujuan melakukan kajian terhadap audiobook sebagai media pembelajaran alternatif bagi masyarakat modern. Kajian difokuskan pada 1) konsep dan karakteristik audiobook, 2) produksi audiobook, dan 3) manfaat audiobook. Hasil kajian diketahui bahwa audiobook merupakan rekaman audio yang ada dalam buku baik berupa teks, gambar, dan ilustrasi lainnya. Produksi audiobook dapat dilakukan melalui: analisis kebutuhan, membuat rancangan, rekaman dan editing, review revisi, ujicoba, dan pemanfaatan. Produksi juga dapat mengotimalkan musik dan sound effect. Manfaat audiobook dapat memahami isi buku tanpa harus membaca, bahkan bisa sambil melakukan aktivitas seharihari. Audiobook juga sesuai dengan budaya bangsa Indonesia yang senang bertutur dan kurang suka membaca, membantu bagi kaum tunanetra, dapat menyelamatkan buku-buku kuno, sebagai contoh penghayatan buku karya sastra, serta membantu belajar bahasa asing/ daerah. Oleh karena itu pemerintah dan swasta serta penulis dan penerbit buku perlu membuat konten audiobook baik dari buku teks maupun dari buku fiksi. Begitu pula perlunya regulasi yang jelas terutama hak cipta penulis dan penerbit buku.Kata kunci: audiobook, buku teks, buku fiksi, media audio pembelajaran  Abstract: Modern society has a tendency to be instant and practical, as well as to be familiar with information and communication technology products. However, the demands of work and storytelling culture has created a hindrance towards the reading culture, especially the less-stimulated tendency to read textbook whereas reading is necessary as a way to keep up with the rapid development of science and technology. This paper aims to conduct a review of the audiobook as a instructional media for modern society. The study focused on: 1) the concept and characteristics of the audiobook, 2) audiobook production, and 3) the benefits of\ audiobooks. The results of the study show that the audiobook is an audio recording in the consists of text, images, and other illustrations. Audiobook Production can be done through 6 stages: needs analysis, desigining, recording and editing, reviewing/revising, implementing trial, and the utilization. Through production, the music and sound effects can be optimized. One of its primary benefits of audiobooks is that it can enable people to understand the contents of the book while performing daily activities without having to read them. Audiobooks are also the perfect fit for the storytelling culture of Indonesian people who prefer to enjoy speaking more but reading less. This way, the audiobooks can also help the blind and visually impaired to obtain knowledge from books especially ancient books as the way to express literary appreciation as well as to learn a foreign/local language. Therefore, the government and private sector as well as authors and book publishers need to make good contents of audiobook developed from the textbook or from a book of fiction. Similarly, clear regulations, particularly copyrights of authors and book publishers is also needed.Keywords: audiobook, textbook, fiction book, instructional audio mediaAbstrak:  Kehidupan masyarakat modern cenderung instan dan praktis, serta familier dengan produkteknologi informasi dan komunikasi. Namun tuntutan pekerjaan dan budaya bertutur ini menjadikan malasuntuk membaca apalagi buku teks. Padahal membaca buku sangat perlu dalam mengikuti perkembanganiptek yang begitu cepat. Tulisan ini bertujuan melakukan kajian terhadap audiobook sebagai mediapembelajaran alternatif bagi masyarakat modern. Kajian difokuskan pada 1) konsep dan karakteristikaudiobook, 2) produksi audiobook, dan 3) manfaat audiobook. Hasil kajian diketahui bahwa audiobookmerupakan rekaman audio yang ada dalam buku baik berupa teks, gambar, dan ilustrasi lainnya. Produksiaudiobook dapat dilakukan melalui: analisis kebutuhan, membuat rancangan, rekaman dan editing, reviewrevisi, ujicoba, dan pemanfaatan. Produksi juga dapat mengotimalkan musik dan sound effect. Manfaataudiobook dapat memahami isi buku tanpa harus membaca, bahkan bisa sambil melakukan aktivitas seharihari. Audiobook juga sesuai dengan budaya bangsa Indonesia yang senang bertutur dan kurang sukamembaca, membantu bagi kaum tunanetra, dapat menyelamatkan buku-buku kuno, sebagai contohpenghayatan buku karya sastra, serta membantu belajar bahasa asing/ daerah. Oleh karena itu pemerintahdan swasta serta penulis dan penerbit buku perlu membuat konten audiobook baik dari buku teks maupundari buku fiksi. Begitu pula perlunya regulasi yang jelas terutama hak cipta penulis dan penerbit buku. Kata kunci: audiobook, buku teks, buku fiksi, media audio pembelajaran Abstract: Modern society has a tendency to be instant and practical, as well as to be familiar with informationand communication technology products. However, the demands of work and storytelling culture has createda hindrance towards the reading culture, especially the less-stimulated tendency to read textbook whereasreading is necessary as a way to keep up with the rapid development of science and technology. This paperaims to conduct a review of the audiobook as a instructional media for modern society. The study focusedon: 1) the concept and characteristics of the audiobook, 2) audiobook production, and 3) the benefits ofaudiobooks. The results of the study show that the audiobook is an audio recording in the consists of text,images, and other illustrations. Audiobook Production can be done through 6 stages: needs analysis,desigining, recording and editing, reviewing/revising, implementing trial, and the utilization. Throughproduction, the music and sound effects can be optimized. One of its primary benefits of audiobooks is thatit can enable people to understand the contents of the book while performing daily activities without havingto read them. Audiobooks are also the perfect fit for the storytelling culture of Indonesian people who preferto enjoy speaking more but reading less. This way, the audiobooks can also help the blind and visuallyimpaired to obtain knowledge from books especially ancient books as the way to express literary appreciationas well as to learn a foreign/local language. Therefore, the government and private sector as well asauthors and book publishers need to make good contents of audiobook developed from the textbook orfrom a book of fiction. Similarly, clear regulations, particularly copyrights of authors and book publishers isalso needed. Keywords: audiobook, textbook, fiction book, instructional audio media


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 132
Author(s):  
Maximilian Kock ◽  
Christoph Louven

The art of sound design for a moving picture rests basically on the work experience of pragmatists. This study tries to establish some guidelines on sound design: In an experiment 240 participants gave feedback about their emotions while watching two videos, each combined with four different audio tracks – music, sound effects, full sound design (music and sound effects) and no audio (as the comparative "null" version). Each participant viewed an audiovisual combination once to prevent habituation. The lead author employed a tablet-computer with the emoTouch-application serving as a mapping tool to provide information about the emotional responses. The participants moved a marker on the tablet's touch screen in a two-dimensional rating scale describing their felt immersion and suspense. A 3-factor-ANOVA showed significant increases of the median (and maximum) values of immersion and suspense when the participants listened to music and/ or sound effects. These values were always compared to the induced emotions of the participants who watched the videos with no audio at all. The video with full sound design audio tracks increased the median immersion values up to four times and the median suspense values up to 1.4 times. The median suspense values of the video with either music or sound effects dropped by 40 percent compared to the median suspense values of the null version. In contrast, the median immersion values were increased up to 3.6 times. The findings point to the importance of sound effects in an appropriate mix with music to enhance the viewers induced immersion and suspense.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (s1) ◽  
pp. 251-262
Author(s):  
Svein Høier

AbstractThis article looks at surround sound in contemporary cinema, with the aim of discussing practices of sound design and, more particularly, pinpointing a ‘best practice’ of surround sound today – focusing here on the practices in the US. The empirical starting point for the analysis is a study of ten Oscar-nominated movies, analysing their soundtracks and especially comparing their stereo and surround versions. The method can be described as a ‘directional’ listening mode, analysing how the different channels and speakers are used when presenting sonic elements like voices, music, atmospheres and sound effects.


Author(s):  
Laurel Westrup

This chapter encourages scholars to listen again to music video. While music videos are often defined as moving images synchronized to a song, they have frequently incorporated sounds associated with cinematic sound design—sound effects, dialogue, and score—that are not part of the featured song(s). Even when a particular song remains central to a music video’s sonic address, it is often rearranged or extended to emphasize elements within the audiovisual mix. Through case studies featuring Logic, Janet Jackson, and the work of Jonathan Glazer, this chapter explores three key functions of cinematic sound in music video: building a fuller narrative, reinforcing the atmosphere or mood of the song, and subverting or challenging the song’s ostensible meaning. These motivations are not mutually exclusive, nor exhaustive; rather, this critical framework is offered as a means of opening up a larger conversation about the interplay between music video and cinematic sound.


2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
ADRIAN CURTIN

This article examines the sonic elements of Antonin Artaud's 1935 production of Les Cenci, Artaud's infamous attempt to realize his proposed ‘theatre of cruelty’. The aim is to qualify the critical opinion that Artaud was a failed theatre practitioner by analysing the conceptual complexity and potential effectiveness of the sound design for this production. Artaud utilized new sonic technologies and an aesthetic arguably derived in part from Balinese gamelan music to affect audience members on a physiological level, prefiguring the vibrational force and ultrasonic ambitions of modern sonic warfare. This analysis engages a range of primary and secondary materials, including an extant recording of music and sound effects used for the production, and is situated with reference to an estimated acoustic ‘horizon of expectations’ of Artaud's audiences and to neuroscientific conceptions of how the brain processes auditory input.


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